High Priestess
'High Priestess' Description Long ago in the land of Terra the god Baal was incarnated into a physical form and made humans taste fear and destruction. The moon turned red as blood and severe heat, drought and famine struck. To placate this horrifying god, men began to sacrifice their fellow men in rites of blood. This pleased the Dark God, who consumed the souls of the sacrificial victims. Baal withdrew back into the world from whence he came and feasted upon slaughtered souls. Ever since, mortals have worshiped the Horror God and sacrificed their own kind to him. From time to time Baal has even honored the prayers and sacrifices of his devotees by his very presence. When the Martyr of El came to Terra and called out to the poor and the famished, Baal sent his subjects to war against him. The Children of El were hunted down and exterminated and fled into the promised land of Elysium. The cult of Baal was weak in Elysium, beset by the Empire on one side and the followers of the Old Ones on the other and also opposed by the sorcerers who had come to Elysium earlier. It was only with the fall of the Empire that the faith of the Dark God became established and during the turmoil of the Interregnum it has come into its power. Now, with the dawn of a new empire rising from the night of the old, El has once again risen to challenge Baal for supremacy. It is the duty of the High Priestess of the Dark God to hunt down and eradicate the heretics until the entire land of Elysium kneels before the glory of Baal Revealed and spills the blood of men in devotion. The High Priestess of Baal performs ritual sacrifices in order to please her God and be rewarded by his favor. The hideous beings whose service she can receive in return for a large sacrifice can be nearly as powerful as demon lords and need not be controlled, for they fear their Dark Master too much to disobey his command to serve mortals. This makes the High Priestess a very powerful and reliable contender for the throne of Elysium. The greatest ritual the High Priestess can perform is to sacrifice her own body so that Baal can use it to enter Elysium in all his terrible splendor. Abilities: *Priestesses collect sacrifices from villages and towns. *Priestesses can perform ritual sacrifices to get servants from Baal. *The Anointed Priestess can invoke Baal to summon him and the red moon. *Access to more and less expensive assassins. *Acess to the Spell Schools Dark Prayers and Necromancy (Via some Leader Summons) Lands Starting Spaces: 1 Cathedral, 1 Village Armies Starting Troops: 1 High Priestess, 1 Hierodule, 10 Ba'alite Spearmen, 5 Ba'alite Archers Recruits: Leaders: # 1 Hierodule¹ ↳ High Priestess¹ ↳ Anointed Priestess¹ ↳ Baal¹ * 0 ¹) Collects Sacrifices *) Price varies Regulars: # 5 Ba'alite Spearmen 50 0 5 Ba'alite Archers 50 0 5 Ba'alite Zealots 50 5 5 Ba'alite Heavy Infantries 50 25 1 Catapult 25 50 Irregulars: # 2 Gibbors 50 15 Summons: # 1 1-10 Adon¹ Anakites Blood Feast 1 Anakite Simple Ceremony 1 2 Anakite Captain¹ Anakites Grand Ceremony 1 Desert Sun¹ Blood Feast 1 Dire Wolf Minor Smn (Nec) 1-10 Dispossessed Spirit(s) Minor Smn (Nec) 1-3 Ghost Warrior(s) Minor Smn (Nec) 1-20 Ghoul(s) Minor Smn (Nec) 1-10 Giant Scorpion(s) Simple Ceremony 1 Giant Spider Simple Ceremony 1-6 Giant Spider(s) Grand Ceremony 1-6 Large Spider(s) Simple Ceremony 1 Lilot¹ Grand Ceremony 1 1-6 Malik² Ditanu(s) Blood Feast 1 Manticore¹ Blood Feast 1-15 Mazzik(s) Simple Ceremony 1-25 Mazzik(s) Grand Ceremony 1 1-6 Melqart¹ Rephaite(s) Blood Feast 1 Mound King¹ Minor Smn (Nec) 1 Mummy Minor Smn (Nec) 1 Raven Familiar Minor Smn (Nec) 1 Scorpion Beast Simple Ceremony 1-5 Scorpion Beast(s) Grand Ceremony 1 Scorpion Man¹ Blood Feast 1-10 Scorpion(s) Simple Ceremony 1 Se'ir Simple Ceremony 1-15 Se'ir(s) Grand Ceremony 1-3 Shade(s) Minor Smn (Nec) 1-3 Shed(s) Grand Ceremony 1 Sirrush Blood Feast 1-12 Small Spider(s) Simple Ceremony 1 Spectral Horseman Minor Smn (Nec) 1 Watcher¹ Blood Feast 1 Wight Minor Smn (Nec) 1 Zamzummite² Grand Ceremony ¹) Leader 2) Leader, collects Hands of Glory Strategy Refar32's strategy notes on the High Priestess: Not among my favorites, the High Priestess is still pretty solid. There are a number of useful summons, but the ceremonies can produce a wide range of results - many a Grand Ceremony can net you less summons than an equivalent Simple Ceremony, and even if you get more, it's not rarely less than you would have ended up when casting the Simple Ceremony more often. Smaller summons, like Mazziks and Spiders, aren't very useful later on, and there are only a few with ranged attacks or spellcasting, most of which require an expensive Blood Feast. Then again, Lilots can be really useful when you manage to get a number of them going to soak up wildlife creatures. Keep in mind that they have a hard time against sentients, and their assassination attack means they only have one chance. The Zamzummite can collect Hands of Glory which you can use to summon first tier undead - this can come in handy, depending on your situation, but in the bottom line, it's nothing but a nice to have. Sheds provide an excellent bang for the buck. The fairly poweful Manticores and/or Sirrushs can come in handy, but they are at the very top of the summoning ladder and chances are you might not be able to afford many summons of this level. Finally, Baal the God - performing the ritual consumes your priestess, and by the time you have the one thousand blood this requires at hand, it's often not worth the hassle. For the price, and considering he's a God, I think he's an underperformer. Category:Classes